The best TV show where the characters were, at one point, in high school?

90210 -- As I said above, it sort of reinvented the genre, which allowed for much better shows to come along. It's really more of a teen soap opera than a true serial drama, but there was some growth for the characters over the length of the series. I'm not sure anyone besides BYH or Zeke would mark it off as one of the "best" HS shows of all time, but it deserves a nod here because it cleared the road for more intelligent fare to come.

The O.C. -- In terms of dialog, it's one of the best-written shows of this genre. It was one of the first popular shows that really understood how to use indie music to convey mood and tone, and it used meta commentary better than any high school show ever, I think. (The Valley; Atomic County.) It managed to say stuff about class warfare that 90210 never really did, and it juggled humor and drama quite well. It loses points because it was all kinds of awful in Season 3.

Buffy -- I still think this earns at least one of my votes because it's the most layered show on the list. It's funny, it's dark, it's about alienation, about sexuality, about lust and honor, betrayal, and faith. Whedon is a really smart dude, and within this series, he wrote what I think are two (maybe three) of the best single episodes of the 90s-00s, "The Body" (which is the most realistic show about death and grief that's ever run on network TV) and "Hush" which is a clinic on storytelling even though it contains no actual dialog for 90 percent of the episode. I'd argue he basically invented Glee with the musical episode. It created a whole universe of people and a mythology. It winked at the audience while at the same time challenging their patience in ways that paid off big time. Spike is one of the best TV characters ever, and Buffy -- despite SMG's limitations as an actress -- was really the first badass heroine on TV worth a shit. (Wonder Woman does not count.) It's a messy show, but a brilliant, moving, inspiring show. (Just slog your way through the first season, which is lame, if you're never seen it and are interested in giving it a chance.)

Veronica Mars -- As I said above, it's easily one of the best detective shows ever. It takes the razor sharp dialog and class commentary of The O.C., combines it with the serial mystery-of-the-week construct of Buffy, throws in some Raymond Chandler, and wraps it up with some female empowerment. I think what's most impressive about it is it created a universe. (Rich kids, poor kids, bikers, Irish gangsters, cops, P.I.s). Kristen Bell is really underrated as an actress. She has really good comedic timing, and does a lot of little things well. If you compare her acting to the stuff on 90210, it's like fucking Shakespeare.

My So Called Life -- Other than Freaks and Geeks, it's the most realistic depiction of high school ever. Kids actually talk like kids, not television writers with MFAs in screenwriting. It also had one of the first real gay characters on TV, and even though it did the typical "very special episode" thing a bit too much (adultery! molestation! teen pregnancy! alcoholism! illiteracy!) it handled those subjects in a real way, not a preachy way. (Most of the time.)

Friday Night Lights -- If you step back and think about, FNL really had some illogical, crazy plot lines. Jason Street almost becomes a Olympic wheelchair rugby player like three months after he's paralyzed. Landry murdered a dude. Tim had sex with his hot neighbor, and was a senior for three years. Too many games were won on the last play. We never met a defensive player until Season 4, other than Santiago's brief stint in the truncated Season 2. All that said, I think this wins it for me. Matt Saracen is one of my favorite television characters ever. Coach Taylor too. It managed to tackle abortion in a realistic, mature way, without chickening out and having the character make the "network approved" decision at the last minute. It spoke to racial issues, class issues, and realistically captured what high school friendships and relationships are like. The documentary-style gave it an intimacy that few shows have, almost like you were peeking over someone's shoulder in half the scenes. It used music brilliantly. It inspired you and it broke your heart as a viewer.

Dawson's Creek -- This show was ass, and I probably should not have included it on the list. Kevin Williamson did write snappy dialog, but the novelty of it wore off quickly. At least it inspired the Sad Dawson Meme.

Freaks and Geeks -- Even more so than My So Called Life, this is depicted kids as they actually are, not as the people they aspire to be in their heads. Bill Haverchuk is one of the the best TV characters ever. Period. The fact that the "nerds" aren't especially brainy or future CEOs is one of my favorite parts of this show, because it goes against pretty much every other TV trope. I get why this show wasn't a success, because it's really uncomfortable to watch a times. It's way too real. That's why it's brilliant, but also why (in addition to terrible promotion from its network) the show failed to get more than the episodes it did. People prefer escapism over art. But the music. My god, the music. I don't know if it should be downgraded just a notch because it only ran for 18 episodes. Can you argue that its 18 episodes are so good, they're better than the sum of, say, 65 episodes of FNL or more than a 100 episodes of Buffy? I don't know. I do, however, that moment where Bill, a latch-key kid, comes home from school and watches Gary Shandling on the Dinah Shore Show is one of the funniest, and most heartbreaking, moments in TV history. And there are plenty of others. Maybe there is some Nirvana appeal going on (it was gone before it ever had a chance to disappoint us, and thus is awarded legendary status) but it's still as strong of a 1-season run as any show has had, ever.

Glee -- I actually think the backlash makes this show hard to judge, because so many people want it to be something it's not, but it's really a funny show. Just in terms of line-for-line jokes, it's probably the funnies show on this list. I don't think the characters have a lot of depth, but the archetypes the represent are entertaining. I think emotionally the show tries to tug at the heartstrings way too much, sometimes embarrassingly so (See: the deaf kids singing Imagine; Mr. Shue singing Somewhere Over The Rainbow) but the the first season was tighly-written, and unlike anything TV had really done before. People joked that it was going to be like Cop Rock set in high school, and it turned out to be a wildly popular show that spoke to some real teen stuff without being (too) predictable or preachy. As someone wrote on the Glee thread, you have to either ignore or embrace its leaps in logic. Any time they deal with football, it's dreadful. But it's a fascinating experiment in many respects.

Saved By the Bell -- Again, this show is pretty terrible. I suppose Happy Days deserved this spot, even though like, what, two seasons of Happy Days happened when they were in high school? (Happy Days was lame for the most part, people. Sorry to thumb my nose at your childhood.) I guess SBTB made the list on camp value. It was basically a kids show, and not a very good one at that, but it did inspire a lot of jokes and is surprisingly re-watchable despite its awfulness.

The Wonder Years -- Lot of good stuff here about growing up, longing for the girl you can never have. I was too young when most of the series ran to appreciate it, but I do remember feeling very similar about my dad to the way Kevin Arnold felt about his dad. Someone can clearly make a better case than I can for its genius. Lots of great music, 60s nostalgia.

 

Been watching the Wonder Years on Hub, and the early years are absolutely fantastic. Kevin, Wayne and Jack particularly just totally are those characters.

But as Fred Savage got older and his cuteness factor started to fade and he turned into just a bratty teen, it started to be a little less enjoyable for me.

 

There were good, enjoyable high school shows before the last 20 years.

The White Shadow was excellent, especially considering the era it was from.

Happy Days was what it was: light-hearted nostalgia, and definitely a product of its time. Not everything holds up, but again, your list had a notable lack of shows produced before 90210. If 90210 changed the game (I can't argue that; was shocked when they actually had Brenda go to bed with Dylan instead of giving some speech about not being ready, as most TV shows had), I would like to know more about what the game had previously been.

Buffy was great . . . until they got out of high school. It still had some flashes, but it wasn't as consistently great anymore. I know the plots got "deeper" to a lot of people, but it just didn't hold my interest. Also, starting the whole "Riley" thing, they very clearly wanted to find excuses to show Ms. Gellar having PG-13 sex.

You mentioned Smallville. The characters might have been in high school, but they were seldom shown in high school. Very good show for about six seasons, but not a high school show.

Your list's lack of Gilmore Girls, with the character development of Rory and friends (and enemies) throughout high school and its depiction of angst and romance for those snooty New England kids, is a notable omission.

 

I always thought the creators of The Wonder Years wrote the show as if the first season (which I include the second season in with the very short first season) was the only one that would be made. They started the show in 1968...so instead of building up to the fireworks of the late 1960s like Mad Men, they were out of it far too quickly.

And Savage was much older than he looked in the first season, so when he hit puberty it was stunning and ruined the momentum of the show.

And I thought that losing Karen early on hurt. 1) Because I totally dug Olivia D'Abo at the time and 2) a lot of the show's conflict seemed to leave.

Still adore the entire series, but it was tough to ever try to top that short but almost perfect first season.

 

That may be true, but this is the golden age of television. The writing, the acting, the direction, the plotting -- all of that is better now. All of it. If people have fond memories of shows that appeared before 1990, I'm happy to listen to them make a case for a particularly show, but people can't just shout "Happy Days! Welcome Back Kotter!" and call it an argument.

These are both fair points, and are two of my biggest holes as a wanna-be TV-o-phile. I've seen neither. Somewhere Zeke is cursing a me for leaving Gilmore Girls off the list too, so I'll concede it should probably included. I've always heard the writing was excellent, and I kind of love Lauren Graham.

I think you touched on some of it right here. Instead of reflecting a world that actually existed -- where kids make bad choices, express real angst and depression, get drunk, fuck and flunk out of school -- TV spent a long time projecting a fantasy. At least with that Brenda stuff -- even with the lame pregnancy scare -- the show decided to show that teens actually have sex when they're teens, which has been happening since the dawn of time.

Riley's time on Buffy is, to me, the equivalent of Sawyer and Kate fucking in bear cages at the beginning of Season 3 of Lost. No on who loves the show can really defend it. There were brilliant moments after, and brilliant moments before, but that sort of broke the spell. Still, some of the single-stand alone episodes in the later seasons are as good as anything TV has done.

 

Glad to see White Shadow on the list. It almost exclusively took place within the walls of a high school.

I'd like to watch it now and see how it holds up. I'm sure just fine against some of its competition on the list (not a dig at DD's list).

Square Pegs jumped to mind too, but I have a feeling that show doesn't hold up well at all.

For everyone's reference, here's Wikipedia's list of high school TV shows.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:High_school_television_series

Head Of The Class. Good god. I was in high school was that show was on and it made me want to puke everytime I watched it.

 

This^

Season 4 was abominable. Seasons 5 and 6 were not only as good, but better than anything 1-3 produced.

Think of the all-time great episodes of the show. Once More With Feeling (musical), The Body (mom dies), Fool for Love (Spike's origins), the entire end of the 6th season.

And that's even if the 7th season of "let's see how much angst we can pile on" didn't suit you.

 

Ok, I have added Gilmore Girls, and Happy Days, even though I think Happy Days is actually a pretty weak show when compared to modern fare, I guess it can be judged as a product of its time. And at the time, it was a nice, light-hearted comedy.

I have an editor who adores One Tree Hill, a show I'm pretty sure BYH loves, but I'm not sure I can stomach putting it on the list either.

No way in hell does Welcome Back Kotter deserve to be on the list, but whatever, I'm including it now, even though no one has properly offered a reason for its inclusion.

 

Can we do a WAR on Tv shows?

Sure, a show like Happy Days cannot stand up against the shows of today, but when you consider your other choices at the time, how good does that show look now?

That's what makes shows like All in the Family so great.

 

I always thought Friends was waging a war against good TV.

 

I'm going back through season 1 right now just because my wife has never seen it, and it's better than I remember it being. Not great, of course, but not bad. I don't remember if it holds up over the long run though.

 

Agreed. It's amazing how well-written that ending was considering they had to put it together in a hurry.

Daniel Stern's narration as the show closed really tugged at the heartstrings, too.

People hated that Jack died, but I thought it was a bold and great piece of writing. Made everything seem more life-like.

Apologies for the spoiler for anyone who is still catching up with their taped shows from 1993...